Monday, November 21, 2016

It's Christmas at Aurora Wings

Our brand new challenge starts today at Aurora Wings with the theme of Christmas. EEEk!!! so many fabulous AW Christmas digis from which to choose. I finally narrowed it down to something that had to do with the Nutcracker ballet, certainly a beloved Christmas tradition, and then on to the adorable Nutcracker and Chipmunk Ballerina, furthering the fantasy. So here I am with a gift bag again. OOps, I did one for the last challenge as well, but that's how it turned out. What can I say? All the Dp came from The Ballet stack from Recollections, a pad I've had for at least as few years.

Here's a closeup of Nutcracker and Chipmunk Ballerina taken under my Ott light on my desk before attempting the fussy cutting. (Trust me, I was sweatin' it!) I've colored with Copics and added some shading and fur detail with Prismacolor pencils. I really had no plan when I started this project, except that I wanted to use the Ballet papers, so I colored accordingly, but printed much smaller than I usually do (since I had no idea what I was doing. A card maybe?..NOT!). This is about 3 1/2 by 4 1/2" so it was not only a bit of a challenge to color with detail, but also to fussy cut. I'm happy that this photo picked up the sparkle of the gel pens I used in silver and gold. Not so much of the Stickles on the tutu, but I'm still quite pleased.

Speaking of fussy cutting, the term really refers to cutting details from printed paper or ephemera, I'm sure before digital stamps were even invented. Everything you see here was cut from the pages of The Ballet Stack. In this case I've cut around a portion of the holly at left to insert the sentiment, which I've also fussy cut from a square tag.

And here's some more fussy cutting for the entire area on which I've place the Nutcracker and Chipmunk Ballerina. Fortunately this was a 12 x 12" pack so it was easy to fussy cut additional elements, like the two holly sprays on the right and left to balance the design and the strips at the top and bottom of the bag to finish it off. Wow, not necessarily my usual style but the project came together nicely and I have one less present to wrap. LOL Be sure to visit the Aurora Wings Challenge Blog to be inspired by the rest of the Aurora Team's gorgeous projects.And don't forget to enter our current FB Contest, Nature's Bounty, now through November 30th.

Wow, Donna! This gift bag IS the gift in and by itself! What gorgeous elements in beautiful color palette! Your coloring on the Nutcracker and the Chipmunk Ballerina is absolutely gorgeous. I can really appreciate all the fussy cutting you've done to create this stunning project. Love the depth the layered elements bring out. Thank you so much for this stunning inspiration for our Christmas challenge at Aurora Wings!! Mitzi xxx

Aaaaaaw, this chipmunk ballerina is absolutely precious! She's really fallen for the nutcracker. Your bag is beautiful - love all the elements and details you added. I would like to make some more gift bags!

Gorgeous gift bag Donna. Your coloring is gorgeous, I love how you colored the fur. The fussy cutting must have taken a while. I love the Stickles on the tutu Thank you for joining the DL.ART Thankful Thursday November Linky Challenge

A wonderful card!Thank you soo much for taking part in our "anything goes with optional use a sentiment” challenge over at Creatalicious & good luck in the draw.Hope to see you again in our new challenge as well…

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Welcome friends

I'm so happy you came to visit and share in my crafting adventures. I hope in doing so you are inspired. I would love to hear your comments and I'm happy to share my designs for your personal use, but please do not submit them for contests or publication or copy them for any commercial venture.

Hugs, Donna email me at

dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com)

About Me

I've always loved crafting, even as a little girl. My inspiration was my Daddy who was a wonderful artist and made beautiful 3-D Valentines for my teachers in grade school. Although I love all kinds of crafts I haven't had a real focus since abandoning counted cross stitch back in the 80's. Until I got my Cricut in 2008, that is. I've since expanded my horizons and found a new love in coloring both rubber and digi stamps with my Copics. Now I'm a blissfully retired card maker and papercrafter married 41 (!) years to a wonderful guy with two furbabies, Goliath and Jezebel. Everyday I look forward to dreaming up designs and playing in my craft room. I invite you to share in my adventures.